Target Archery Stand Designs

Two new designs for Target Archery stands are presented here, along with explanations of the reasons behind the various design decisions.This design, and the associated documents are Copyright (c) Mike Brockington, but the design itself is "Open-Source" - feel free to use these designs;modify them as necessary, but please do not re-publish them except by linking to this site;please acknowledge this site as the original source for any modified designs.

"Bonnyrigg" stand.

Three "Grove" stands.

Introduction

The "Grove" design is currently in use outdoors, hence the drawings show a peg-hole in each foot.
The "Bonnyrigg" design is currently used indoors, but peg-holes can easily be added in a similar manner if required.Both designs are deliberately lightweight, so that they can be carried by teenagers and above.(The "competition" stands that are used at Lasswade weigh very nearly double either of these designs, and are too difficult for smaller adults to carry.)The "Grove" design can be built without any power tools - a hand saw, drill-brace and a screwdriver are all that is necessary.
The more complicated joints of the "Bonnyrigg" design could probably be achieved with a hammer and chisel, but will certainly require a greater skill level.As a result, the "Bonnyrigg" design is naturally extremely rigid, the "Grove" design is better suited for outdoor use where the four peg holes, plus a guy rope to hold down the boss, provide plenty of extra stability, but also has enough flexibility to accomodate uneven ground.Both designs are based on 2400mm lengths of CLS timber, which is a smooth-planed construction timber that is widely available from builder's merchants, timber yards or from DIY stores such as B&Q, and will normally be significantly cheaper than any comparable timber.
If you can get hold of 1800mm lengths, this may reduce wastage if some dimensions are adjusted slightly. Avoid the use of "rough sawn" timber unless your stands will never move, or you really like getting splinters!Nominal dimensions are 63 x 38mm - many of the dimensions of these designs reflect one-half, one-third or of course two-thirds of one of those two dimensions, so if different timber is used, small adjustments will need to be made as appropriate.

Neither of these designs were built for competition use, but by enlarging them slightly, they should be perfect for that role. Consideration should be given to using the slightly heavier version of CLS, which is 38 x 89mm, or possibly a mixture of the two sizes.
The "Bonnyrigg" design specifies a closed height of six feet, in order to allow it to be carried through a door that is 2m high; for competition use this should be increased to approximately seven feet so that the top bar barely touches the top of the boss. Similarly, both designs are narrow enough to fit into many estate cars for easy transport - for competition use a width of approx 1200mm would be preferred.As already mentioned, the standard length for CLS is 2400mm, if the width is restricted to 800mm, then all three cross-bars can be obtained from a single length without any waste, or for a full-width stand, two bars of 1200mm can be cut, and no waste will occur if an even number of stands are built.

The back legs are specified to be 1500mm long, so that the 900mm offcut can be used for the support arms - if the available timber is slightly shorter, the length of the back legs can be adjusted without altering the fundamental design, provided that they are still long enough to do the job.

On many archery stands, the front cross bar gets in the way when loading a boss, leaving the boss somewhat precariously balanced a couple of inches above the support arms.The "Grove" design eliminates this problem by fitting the cross bar behind the front legs, out of harms way.

The coach bolts used for both designs are usually sold with a plain nut - it is a good idea to make use of this nut during the construction phase, and then replace it with a nylon lock-nut once everything has been assembled.It is fairly easy to assemble the sides of the stands incorrectly, and the lock nuts should only be used once...A single nut is not suitable for situations such as this, where rotation occurs routinely as it will soon work loose, therefore a nylon lock-nut has been specified.This is much better than a double nut, as it is important to get pressure on the joint to stop it being loose, and because a double nut means twice as much metal to be hit accidentally.

Modern coach bolts tend to have threads that are moulded, so that they are slightly wider than the shaft of the bolt.(Older bolts had the threads cut from shaft, automatically leaving them a fraction narrower.)This makes the shaft loose in the hole - this can be reduced by wrapping masking tape, electical tape, or even just plain paper around the shaft until it matches the hole drilled for it. (The design specifies 10mm bolts, for which a 9.5mm hole appears to be adequate, as is approximately four layers of 50mm wide masking tape.)

The support arms should not drop down too easily, nor should the legs shut too easily, or fingers are likely to be trapped. A washer is needed as a spacer between each piece of timber, but since we are trying to avoid the joints being too loose, a fibre washer would be ideal, but probably cheaper to simply glue a pair of penny washers back-to-back. The washer should be as large as is available, particularly for the "Grove" design, to reduce the amount of movement in each joint.

If the stands are to be used outdoors, you should drill a peg hole in each leg, at between 45* and 60* to the horizontal.
Then stand each leg in a tub of wood preservative for a few minutes, ensuring that the peg hole is submerged, before allowing to drain dry over a suitable drip-tray.This is far cheaper than buying pressure-treated timber, and creates much less mess than using a paint brush, as well as automatically leaving a "clean edge" to the colour.In very dry climates, this step can of course be ignored, while for stands that are left outside permanently or for long periods, then pressure-treated (tanalised) timber should be readily available in the same basic dimensions.

Features

"Bonnyrigg" Design

Lightweight

Extremely stable

Little visible woodwork for stray arrows to damage

Very little exposed metalwork for arrows to hit - all screws come through from the rear